On the move

Here's our little guy in action - a great shot captured by Auntie Laura when we visited last month just before his 9-month birthday.

He's even more on the move now, and on Tuesday managed to crawl from his room to the kitchen in search of me. He is becoming much more independent though, and is beginning to explore on his own or is content playing with his toys. Kyle's balance is greatly improving, and he can manage to stand unsupported for several seconds. We fear that it won't be long now before he starts to experiment with taking his first real steps! He's growing up faster than we can believe.

Kyle had his first "swim lesson" on Tuesday, and although he wasn't as excited about the water as he was when we took him to the pool at the hotel, he wasn't unhappy with it either. His favorite part was sitting on the edge and leaning forward to "jump" into my arms in the water, although he also enjoyed "swimming" after the little toy football floating away from him. I'm going to try to take him on a weekly basis so that he can get used to being in the water and hopefully pick up some of the concepts soon too. Only three more months until we will be on vacation at Lake Almanor!

Happy Easter

We hope that you had a wonderful Easter, celebrating with family and friends. We have just returned from dinner at Noni and Papa's house (Dave's parents) and were joined there by Maemo and Granpa (Fiona's mum and dad), Uncle Mike, and Great-Uncle Charlie & Great-Aunt Doni. Kyle was quite the entertainer and loved being the center of attention - making him quite wired and a bit difficult to get down to bed tonight! Instead of his usual trip to dreamland at 7pm, he was up until 8:30. Hopefully the rest of the night will go smoothly.

Wishing everyone a Happy Easter and Beautiful Spring.

Our little waterbaby

This past weekend, we took a trip to the El Dorado Wine Country for a wine tasting weekend, and couldn't bear to leave Kyle behind, so he came along too. To make it somewhat fun for him, we decided to have his first swimming experience in the hotel pool. Unfortunately, it wasn't heated, so it was a little chilly for mom in there with him, but he didn't seem to mind much at all! He was quite content to splash around, try
walking on the steps, and even have a little floating time on his tummy (with a little support!) Since it went so well, we'll definitely look into taking him to swim classes soon, although those will be in a heated pool!

We visited the doctor yesterday for Kyle's 9-month check up. He is now weighing in at 19.5 pounds and is 2' 3.5" tall! She was surprised to see that he already has 7 teeth, and was also very impressed with how well he can stand and balance all on his own. Before we know it, he's going to be walking!

9-month birthday

It's hard to believe that our little boy has now turned 9-months old! To celebrate the big day, we took a trip to the Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo. There wasn't a lot of action there (the owl was sound asleep) but Kyle had fun watching the raccoon climb around and some of the fish swimming in the aquarium. And he was quite surprised by all of the noise that the goose made!

Afterward, we had a picnic in the park, followed by some fun time in the swing. Next visit, there are even more fun things to play with at the playground, maybe a ride on the motorcycle or a few trips down the slide.

After such an exciting day, Kyle was asleep as soon as we got to the car - good thing we had his new, comfortable big-boy car seat for him to relax in!

Watch out world, here he comes!

The past two weeks feel like they have been going in fast forward. Kyle managed to make it across the room for the first time on February 25th, and since then there has been no stopping him! A couple of days later he managed to stand up in his crib all by himself, never mind that he was supposed to be napping.

Now to watch him standing and sitting up, and even sitting from a standing position, you would think that he's been at this for months! He of course still prefers to be in his birthday suit for crawling on our wood floors to give him a little extra traction, but even clothed he makes good progress, and there isn't as much complaint out of him about the exertion.

We're heading up to Washington on Thursday, and looking forward to his first plane trip and first visit to Auntie Laura, Uncle Scott and of course Bailey!

Roly-poly

We are just waiting for it to start any day now - Kyle learning how to crawl and just taking off around the house! He seems to be non-stop already, but I know there is even more just waiting to get out. Right now he is rolling over onto his tummy every chance that he gets, especially when he is put down for a nap, or at 3am. At these times, he conveniently forgets how to roll back over. This photo isn't mid-roll, it is actually Kyle in the middle of a nap! The best part is when I go in to get him from a nap and he is on his tummy trying to peek up out of the crib to see me coming. He loves being on his feet and bouncy lately, so we may have to invest in a Jumperoo!

Meanwhile mom and dad are hanging in there, still trying to get used to the lack of sleep. We had a rough month, but knock on wood seem to be back on track for being able to make it mostly through the night. Dave takes bottle-duty on the weekends in an attempt to relieve me of getting up at 4 or 5am, however Kyle seems to want the real thing, and this morning only took an ounce out of the bottle from Dave, so I ended up getting up with him a half hour later.

We can't believe that we just celebrated Kyle's 7-month birthday, time is flying by so quickly that we know it will be June before we know it. Every day Kyle brings more laughter into our lives, and hopefully lots more sleep soon too!

6-month photos

We had a wonderful week between Christmas and the New Year, with Auntie Laura and Uncle Scott visiting from Washington. We are truly spoiled to have two photographers in the family, and as Laura says, we wouldn't be able to stop them taking photos even if we wanted them to! The link to the newest photos are below, with some from our Christmas celebration, throughout the week, and the official "portrait session".

Kyle at 6 months


Hope that you enjoy!